As it readies its own data centres in India that are slated to be operational by the year-end, Microsoft has begun a push to bring more small and medium businesses (SMBs) on to the cloud.
The technology major feels that the data centre presence would help its customers meet data sovereign requirements wherever needed.
“There is a huge potential in the SMB segment for cloud adoption as there is no problem of legacy. They can just jump on to the cloud technologies,” Meetul Patel, General Manager (Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners) of Microsoft India, has said.
Addressing its 10,000 partners here on Thursday, he said the firm discussed trends with partners and the kind of changes they might want to bring in the service offerings.
He said there were different sets of SMBs experiencing or using technology at different levels. A good number of them are yet to come on board. “But they will come one day. Some of them began to understand technology and its benefits. Some others began to see value in e-commerce initiatives. There are others who are already using technology in a significant manner,” he said. Only 40 per cent of the estimated 40 million SMBs are exposed to technology. The firm expects that this could go up to 90 per cent by 2020.
Data centres“We are setting up three data centres by the end of December. We are going commercially live with them, offering cloud services to Indian customers from these centres. We have already started a private preview from July 1. They are testing applications and services on these data centres,” Tushar Makkar, Head of Business Value Communications, said.
Stating that the pace of cloud adoption had gathered momentum, Meetul Patel said the firm had roped in various service providers to enable SMBs adopt technology – right from acquiring basic infrastructure to tools to put their businesses online.